The District 6 runners-up from West Hernando County opened the 12-team State Tournament with a trio of scintillating wins in three days over Callaway (15-5), West Seminole (8-6) and District 6 champion Bushnell (9-8).

The local club nearly made it four in a row.

On Tuesday, the American nine trailed 12-7 entering its final at-bat against host Sebring.

Head coach Joe Abbadessa's club, which battled back time and time again, tallied four runs – three on a bases-clearing double by Zach Stone – and had runners at the corners with two out.

That's when Spring Hill's Chase Davis ripped a shot that was grabbed in short left field and relayed to second base for the final out on a bang-bang call, 12-11.

On Wednesday, Spring Hill allowed seven early runs (only two earned) along the first two frames before being eliminated by West Seminole, 8-5.

"Wednesday was one of those games where we made contact (Spring Hill hitters struck twice), but we couldn't find any grass," shrugged Coach Abbadessa. "We consistently hit the bad hard – but right at people. That's baseball. To win a tournament like this, sometimes you have to be lucky, too."

Incredibly, Spring Hill American averaged nearly 11 runs per game in its three wins. Despite scoring 16 runs in its final two games, the local team was shown the exit finishing fourth overall in the double-elimination format.

Abbadessa, who guided Spring Hill to a 2-2 run at states 2011, was disappointed with the final two scores but not with his team's performance.

"If I had regret I regret us making two pitches that eventually cost us two homers and seven runs," said Abbadessa. "We thought going in if we shored up our defense that our bats would be there – and they were. Offensively, our bats were fine.

"Like everyone else we could have used one more arm. Who knows what would have happened if we would have had one more arm?" he said. "When I left this tournament I was disappointed in one thing. I think we could have been the best team there. There were 4-5 teams that could have easily won this tournament; there was a lot of parity."

Coach Abbadessa wishes his team could have reversed Tuesday's nail-biting loss to Sebring.